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After a seven-year run as one of the most dominant video game consoles in history, the PS2 has amassed quite a collection of quality air combat games. From Heroes of the Pacific to the Lethal Skies franchise to the undisputed king of the genre, the Ace Combat series, PS2 gamers who want to strap themselves into a cockpit and blast holy hell out of enemy flying aces have more options than they can shake a joystick at. That's good news for gamers but bad news for Codemasters, publishers of Heatseeker, a mediocre entry into an already crowded field that doesn't offer gamers anything that they can't get better (and cheaper) somewhere else.

Mission: Mediocrity

Heatseeker is set in a world that bears no resemblance to our own politically, where the "International Council" is imposing sanctions against the "Feds" as a result over a dispute over Antarctic oil drilling rights. But fortunately, they've got a Boeing and a Lockheed Martin in this alternate world as well, which means, as Mike "Downtown" Hudson, you've got F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-22 Raptors, F/A-18 Hornets, F-15 Eagles and other real-world combat aircraft at your disposal to take on your vaguely defined enemy. Each aircraft has its own unique speed, defense, combat and agility ratings, but due to the game's arcade-style gameplay (and the fact that the enemies tend to be dirt-stupid), a plane's stats don't figure as prominently into the mix as you might think. Some aircraft are equipped with a stealth feature that temporarily makes them invisible to enemy lock-ons, and while this is handy, it's also unnecessary for any pilot worth their wings.

The basic controls are relatively standard and don't carry much of a learning curve with them. The right analog stick serves as the throttle and airbrake, while the left stick controls the pitch. L2 and R2 control the rudder (yaw), and L1 and R2 are the cannon and primary weapon triggers, respectively. You can set the control style to Arcade Mode for a less demanding gameplay experience or Professional Mode for simulation-style play. Three difficulty levels (Rookie, Pilot and Ace) allow you to further customize the game for your experience level, but even novice air warriors shouldn't have much of a problem on anything except the Ace setting.

There are 18 missions in the game, split into four chapters, and every mission is pretty much the same: Blast wave after wave of incoming enemy air/sea/land units before they can destroy a friendly target of strategic significance. 90 percent of the time, this involves targeting the nearest enemy, soaring toward them with afterburners blazing until you get a missile lock, and then launching a heatseeking missile. As the game progresses, your enemies get a bit smarter, but not a lot smarter. They tend to fly in formation, which means that liberal use of your airbrake puts you in position to nail several of them with a single pass. Each mission is divided into several checkpoints that you can continue from, and the game autosaves after every successful mission.

If this all sounds pretty by-the-numbers, well, that's because it is. At its best, Heatseeker does all of the things that any decent arcade-style air combat game should do. It does a passable job of making you feel as if you're at the controls of a fast and furious flying machine, and it feeds you ridiculous numbers of enemies for your exploding pleasure. But when compared to any of the aforementioned quality air combat games, it comes up short.